The Reimagining Columbus project. 

With support from the Monuments Project, the City of Columbus is committing to re-envision our public art and public spaces to make them more representative of our values and aspirations, and to tell the truth about colonialism and racism. 

By reckoning with symbols of our city’s namesake, Christopher Columbus, and creating a more inclusive public art landscape, our city has an opportunity to address systemic racism while creating an opportunity to more fully recognize, understand and celebrate our multiplicity.

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The Mellon Foundation | Monuments Project 

Launched in 2020, the Monuments Project is a five-year, $250 million commitment to reimagine and rebuild commemorative spaces and transform the way history is told in the United States.

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  • Host conversations to understand what Columbus residents value most, and how the city’s public spaces and public art can communicate our shared values and aspirations.

  • Solicit thoughts and ideas on what should happen to the Christopher Columbus statue, including how it could be used to tell the story of people who have not been publicly memorialized in the past.

  • Create new public art for the Columbus City Hall campus that reflects who we are as a community today, and who we want to be tomorrow.

The Reimagining Columbus project goals.

This process will include robust community engagement, and will be guided by a Cultural Competency Committee of historians, indigenous architects and designers and diversity and inclusion specialists, so we may be as thoughtful as possible in creating public art and public places that are historically accurate and support empathy building.

The Cultural Competency Committee.

The Reimagining Columbus Project Team

Team roles:

Cultural Competency Committee:

The Cultural Competency Committee will act as an internal sounding board and review committee for all content generated for this project.

Design Team

The Design Team will use engagement content to generate designs for the potential new space that allows the public to physically interact and understand difficult histories.

Community Engagement Team

The Community Engagement Team will develop and facilitate engagement experiences for the general public.

Project Management Team

The Project Management Team will ensure the team is on task and on schedule to reach the grant goals as well as interface with the City of Columbus.

Timeline

Reimagining Columbus is a multi-year, multi-phase project. A tentative schedule is below.

Project Establishment:

Jun ‘23 - Aug ‘23

Historic Research:

Sept ‘23 - Jan ‘24

Community Engagement & Visioning:

Feb ‘24 - Aug ‘24

Conceptual Design:

Sept ‘24 - Nov ‘24

Community Review:

December ‘24

FAQs

  • We have a responsibility to tell the truth about colonialism and racism. Through a $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project, we have an opportunity to reckon with symbols of our city’s namesake, Christopher Columbus, and create a more inclusive public art landscape. This will allow us all an opportunity to uncover and share our fuller, more complex story.

  • The Monuments Project is an unprecedented commitment by the Mellon Foundation to transform the nation’s commemorative landscape by supporting public projects that more completely and accurately represent the multiplicity and complexity of American stories. By joining the Monuments Project, Columbus joins an effort by cities and organizations nationwide to grapple with difficult history and uplift the stories of people who haven’t been represented in our symbolic landscape.

  • This process will include work with historians to research and understand Christopher Columbus’ legacy and the impacts of colonialism. We’ll then convene significant community engagement to encourage the sharing of personal histories and lived experiences associated with the Christopher Columbus statue. Based on community input, we’ll develop a conceptual design for a commemorative space that addresses the hard truths about Columbus the man and the ways we as a society have told his—our—stories. The City of Columbus will also invest $1.5 million in new public art on the City Hall campus that reflects who we are as a city today. Along the way, we’ll document what we’ve learned, so other cities grappling with difficult history may learn from our journey.

  • The statue will not be reinstalled at City Hall; community engagement will influence the design and location of this new public space.

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